Is Maricopa County's Government Corrupt?
Who is the most corrupt politician in Maricopa County? Andrew Thomas is putting county residents in the courts, jails, and prisons twice as fast as they arrive. Sheriff Joe Arpaio carries a big stick and thumps just about anybody that doesn't bow down to him.
Supervisors Wilcox and Stapley stood toe to toe with the County Attorney and Sheriff and now they are under investigation by same.
Superintendent of Schools Sandra Dowling was forced to resign before charges were dismissed against her. Now she's suing the county for the damage caused her life by attempting to serve the people. Supervisor Stapley could well be next once the remaining charges are dismissed against him
Sheriff Arpaio is the most sued politician in America and somehow wins elections without contest. Andrew Thomas, whose credentials for his current job are shaky at best, is now going to run for State Attorney General and the sheriff is rumored to be thinking seriously about a run for Governor.
All governments throughout history consist of three basic components.
The first component is providing services. Services is the primary reason for government to exist at all and contains the pool of substantive daily benefits government provides the people.
The second component is a bureaucracy. This is the branch of government chartered with managing the services provided to the people.
The last component is a military. The military exists to protect the people from the greed, and corruption, of other governments.
A fourth component of government also exists — Corruption.
The fourth defining component of government is corruption, but it is more a force than a "thing". Corruption determines the ratio of the other three components in relation to one another. As corruption spreads, bureaucracy grows, public services shrink, and the military becomes more about protecting the government than protecting the people.
Corruption is a sort of disease in the body government. This is easily proven because corruption of one form or other has collapsed every government for 10,000 years. Therefore, governments have a predictable cycle of life: Birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death.
The fact that all governments decay due to corruption was a core concern of America’s Founding Fathers.
During the birth period of the United States of America, our Founding Fathers were well aware of the lifecycle of government and tried to put some protections in place for the people. The Articles of Confederation and ultimately the Constitution of the United States were drafted specifically for one purpose—to protect the people from their government.
To keep corruption at bay, our government cannot make it a crime for someone to voice their disagreement. To keep the people strong, we should have no army, but a standing militia of citizen soldiers. To keep minds free of government control, no religion can be forced upon the people.
Micro-governments have the same components as national governments.
Large or small, all governments have the same components. Of course, we label them somewhat differently. The military isn’t labeled an Army, it is labeled Police Officer, Lawyer, or Judge. The Bureaucrat is a Supervisor, Assessor, or Clerk. Services are a firefighter, doctor, or maintenance worker.
Corruption is even easier to identify in micro-governments than large governments. While the specifics of corruption (the individual or the law) is not so easily pegged, the fact that the bureaucracy grows, services shrink, and the military is transformed into a tool to enforce the will of the government squarely pegs both the scale and direction of corruption.
Maricopa County’s government has corrupted into the decay stage.
A government exists foremost to provide services. In the ideal, there would be a ratio of tax spending of 70/10/20 for Services, Military, and Bureaucracy respectively.
We could, of course, debate the ratios, but one factor of government still irrefutably measures what stage of life a it is operating from. That factor is how it collects and distributes its resources — in this case that’s taxes. Yet, while the amount of taxes collected is examined with great public concern, how they are used doesn’t get nearly the scrutiny it deserves.
For fiscal year 2010, the Maricopa County Budget is $2.3 billion. That equates to $591 for each of the 4 million men, women, and children living in the county, but given that children don’t pay taxes, it is more. I examined the county’s budget and pooled its collected tax receipts into paying for services, bureaucracy, and legal components with the knowledge that this ratio would determine where the county government is in its lifecycle. The results follow:
# 3 is Services 26% $617 million
#2 is Legal (Military) 33% $772 million
#1 is Bureaucracy 41% $949 million
Even this is somewhat skewed as I have classed county Employee Benefits into Bureaucracy, and the county classes its Detention Operations within the domain of the County Manager, a bureaucrat. Reclassifying revenues such as these from the bureaucracy to the legal (military) component clearly shows the government is more interested in enforcement than service.
With almost 75 percent of tax receipts fueling the bureaucratic and military components of Maricopa County’s government, the corruption is so prevalent that the military (legal) component of county government has moved beyond preying upon the population and is now challenging the bureaucracy for ultimate control.
One can say that this infighting is a symptom of the deep and prevalent decay caused by the spread of corruption, or that history is merely repeating itself for the ten thousandth time. However you choose to explain it, the results are the same — a slow and painful, or sudden and dramatic, death.
Small wonder that the Founding Fathers of our nation believed that a Constitution — to limit the power of government — was needed to ensure the survival of the people.
So, who are consuming all of your money and are you benefiting? Here are the top 5 departments:
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If you haven't already noticed, then notice that Public Works (roads, dams, bridges) and Public Healthcare (Access, Medicaid) leave only 5% to be spent on all of the remaining below Services activities. What you are looking at is the bare minimum Services required to sustain order and stop a taxpayer revolt ! Now you can see the creeping effect of corruption at work.
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Source of the above: Maricopa County's website.
